Veterans Offered Chance Of TV Careers

Military veterans will be given the chance to retrain to work as location managers in the television industry in a new ScreenSkills initiative…

The training is designed to help ex-Armed Forces personnel, who are within two years of leaving the services, identify how skills acquired in the military can be translated into behind-the-camera roles in the screen industry. Many roles in the military – such as medics, drivers and cooks – have a direct equivalent in the screen industry and others involve skills that could easily be transferred.

The new ScreenSkills location manager scheme introduces veterans specifically to jobs which fall in the location and unit management department. People working in this department find places to shoot productions, which not only look right but are safe, accessible and cost-effective.

The investment in location management training is a response to the projected recruitment difficulties highlighted by the ScreenSkills Quarterly Barometer, a state-of-the-sector snapshot of skills needs published in December 2018. It found that location managers are in high demand and vacancies are increasingly difficult to fill. (Pathfinder, 28th February 2019)